[Avodah] Seeing the Simcha of Yerushalayim

[Kenneth Miller]

There's a famous gemara on Taanis 30b which is often translated as, "Whoever mourns for Yerushalayim will be zocheh to see her simchah." But I noticed that the last phrase - zocheh v'roeh b'simchasa - is in the present tense, not the future.

I'd like to suggest that the gemara is NOT making a promise that the one who properly mourns will be rewarded by witnessing the rebuilding. That would distort the present-tense grammar of the gemara. Moreover, would we say that the gemara failed to deliver on its promise to the gedolim of the centuries, who surely DID mourn properly?

Rather, the gemara is describing the *current* situation. One who mourns properly is not merely affected by the Churban deeply and personally, as if he was living through it. More than that, he sees it in its proper perspective through all of history. If one can grasp the reality of the Churban to that extent, then he can appreciate the reality of the Rebuilding just as strongly, and he can share in Yershalayim's joy in the here and now, just as surely as Rabbi Akiva did, when he laughed upon seeing the foxes on Har HaBayis.

Akiva Miller
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